Новости науки и техники в "Scientific American" 25.XII.2001

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER DISTINCTIVE DEEP-SEA SQUID

The depths of the ocean remain largely unexplored, so it's hardly surprising that new creatures continue to reveal themselves to scientists and their submersibles. A new report describes one such novel animal, a large deep-sea squid sighted eight times in the last few years at sites around the globe.

THE CELLULAR UNDERPINNINGS OF THE FRENCH PARADOX

About a decade ago, the discovery of the French paradox - that people living in France have a lower incidence of heart disease than do their British counterparts, despite a comparable intake of dietary fat - touched off the ongoing debate over the health benefits of alcohol. New research suggests that components specific to red wine do indeed provide protection against coronary artery disease.

PHYSICISTS PROBE PROTON'S SPIN PROPERTIES

When it comes to a proton's spin, the whole is more than the sum of its quarks. Each proton contains three quarks, the spins of which can only account for about 20 percent of the proton's spin. But new experimentsusing Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) may help untangle the problem of the proton's missing spin by further investigating the properties of gluons, the particles that hold quarks together and carry the so-called strong force.

BOOK:  EYE OF THE WHALE: EPIC PASSAGE FROM BAJA TO SIBERIA by Dick Russell.

The whale is Eschrichtius robustus, the gray whale of the Eastern Pacific, which makes "a twice-annual migration that must be regarded as one of the most spectacular achievements on the planet". Swimming close to the shore, some 26,000 grays travel from breeding areas in the central Baja California region of Mexico to Arctic feeding grounds near the Bering Strait and back - a minimum of 5,000 miles each way. Environmental journalist Russell writes sensitively about the past, present and uncertain future of these remarkable animals.

TEMPERATURE TUNES A TINY LASER'S COLOR

The telltale signature of most lasers used in everyday applications - from bar-code scanners to pen-size pointers - is a bright red glow. The color is determined by the light's wavelength, and most lasers emit at only one wavelength. A new describes a light source measuring only tens of millimeters across that changes color according to temperature.

ATHLETES CAN TRAIN TO AVOID CHOKING UNDER PRESSURE

Some sports fans might argue that this year's World Series went to a nail-biting seventh game because Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim choked, twice. The phenomenon of choking - performing worse than expected under pressure - has long plagued professional athletes and performers, but its cause was unclear. Do performers choke because they pay too much attention to their actions or because they get distracted and pay too little attention? A new report suggests that it is overattending to a well-learned skill that causes choking.